Traditional vehicular seats, namely those seats employed by commuter buses and coaches, are often comprised of a hard material such as fiberglass or high-impact synthetic resins and plastics. These materials are often employed due to their resilient nature—they are not vulnerable to destruction due to intentional vandalism or high-volume commuter wear and tear. Furthermore, seats of this construction are also easily maintained in that they may be readily scrubbed with harsh abrasives to remove stains and markings, without obvious damage to the seat's finish.
However, while seats of this construction are easily maintainable, they tend to fail to provide even the slightest level of comfort to a commuter seated thereupon. The rigid construction can cause upper and lower back pains after short periods of time, as well as discomfort to the user's buttocks and thighs. A seating surface which employs softer and more cushioned seating surfaces is needed. Unfortunately, to construct commuter bus or coach seats of a more flexible and soft supple cloth-like material, as is often encountered in small passenger vehicles is not feasible since these types of seats are easily damaged, cut, and marred. To replace an entire such seat assembly in response to damage, cutting or marring would be extremely cost prohibitive. Accordingly, a device or system is needed which permits a commuter bus or coach seat to provide comfort to a user, without all of the problems inherent in the systems mentioned above.
In recent years, seating inserts have been used which a rigid spine is covered with a fabric, carpet-like pile, and then is attached to the seat frame. Such inserts marginally improve the comfort for the rider. In addition, because the fabric covering is glued directly to the rigid spine, a vandal can perhaps scrape through the fabric with a knife, but the rigid spine will prevent the vandal from doing little more than making a fine cut-line in the fabric pile.
The problem with such inserts, is that although the fabric pile provides a more attractive seat, which is soft on the surface, it fails to provide adequate cushioning for the rider. The obvious solution would be to provide a cushion between the fabric pile and the rigid spine. However, a simple cut from the vandal's knife would destroy such a seat. Accordingly, attempts to cushion such an insert have been coupled with attempts to prevent a vandal's knife from moving through the cushion—such as by putting a metal mesh within the foam, or a metal mesh in the fabric covering. All such attempts are easily defeated with sufficient strength and determination on the part of the vandal, and thus have been largely unsuccessful.
Some buses have a newer seat design, which provides a frame-like support, which only supports a seating insert along its edges, and defines a central opening within the frame-like support. The present application seeks to provide an effective solution which provides a vandal resistant seating insert, while providing a comfortable riding experience to the passenger. Accordingly, while these prior art units described herein may be suitable for the particular purpose employed, or for general use, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as disclosed hereafter.